Friday, February 08, 2013

Once more the wheel turns and I find myself in France for a
few weeks for the wine trade shows.
First up: Millesime Bio, in Montpellier, in the South of France. Yeah, there are worse places to be in late
January, let’s be honest.

This show is dedicated to Organic and Biodynamic wines, with
a few Natural wines thrown in for good (and mostly stinky) measure. There are small winemakers (like my
Azay-le-Rideau producer, Pascal Pibaleau), and huge corporate coops showing
their wares for 3 days. Thousands of
professional alcoholics wine buyers come from all over the world to
sniff, swirl and spit. It’s a grand old
time, with the few good restaurants and wine bars in Montpellier packed to the
gills with wine pros.

This year, there were more “Off” shows than ever before (6
at last count), with many showcasing only Natural wines or smaller, independent
producers. What’s an “Off” you ask? No, it has nothing to do with insect
repellent. “Offs” are smaller side
shows, usually taking place in old monasteries, castles or ruins, where folks
who can’t (or won’t) pay the main show’s fees can pour their wares. They are great venues for meeting new, up and
coming winemakers and meet some old favorites who are now eschewing the big
show. They’re also much more informal,
meaning there’s less spitting, more sloshing, and way more singing and dancing
between the tables.

Most of these Offs were focusing on Natural wines, which is
the new “it” thing in the world of wine geekery. Made with minimal intervention, these wines
can be startlingly alive when they’re good.
But when they’re not, well, you better like drinking, say, rotten
meat. And, since these wines have no
added SO2, they are inherently unstable, so shipping has to be handled as
gently as possible. If I sound cynical
about them, it’s because I’ve tasted a LOT of them, and too many use the term
“natural” as an excuse to make a flawed wine.

That said, I do appreciate the spirit of innovation and
invention which drives these winemakers, who are passionate about the land, the
environment and their terroirs. And while I did taste some complete
shitshows, I found some interesting things, both at the main show and at the
Offs.

Pascal stands at attention at his table

As I mentioned previously (were you paying attention?), I
also managed to meet up with Pascal Pibaleau, my Azay-le-Rideau producer, and
retaste his great wines. In fact, I may
bring in a new one, a Gamay that was outstanding and should retail in the
$19-20 range. That stuff was so good I
had to stop myself from drinking it all.
His sparkling Rose, made from Cab Franc and Grolleau, was delicious, and
as much as I wanted to stay there and just drink his wines, I needed to go meet
some folks.

What’s a wine trade show like? Well, lots and lots of tables, bottles and
glasses, with folks trying to get your attention, and many dying to meet US
importers. Despite the Euro’s strength
(grrrrrr….), the US is still their main export target. China is an important market, but mainly for
high-volume, low-cost crap (having tasted what goes out there, I can use the
technical term “crap” with a fair amount of confidence). The smell of wine is almost overwhelming when
you arrive, but you get used to it and get on with your work.

Lunchtime is served in a huge hall, but unlike trade shows
in the US (I went to a few in a previous life), the food here is, well, really
relatively damn good. There’s some great
salad, stinky cheeses, and well-made main courses. Of course, this is all in the context of a
trade show: feeding several thousand hungry and sometimes slightly inebriated
wine buyers can’t be easy, so making sure you don’t start a riot with bad food
is pretty impressive.

Herve and Sylvie Sauvaire looking a tad shell-shocked

I was lucky to also meet up with another of my producers,
Hervé Sauvaire and his lovely wife, Sylvie. While they do practice Organic viticulture, their domaine is not certified, so they were there to
see some friends (and me!). Frankly, for
all intents and purposes, they are Organic, as they don’t use any chemicals or
weird shit on their land. They have one
of the oldest wineries in the South (it was a dowry in the early 1600s), so
they’ve had some time to figure things out and make sure they maintain the
health of their terroirs.

All in all, it was a good show, I found a few interesting
things (if they work out, we might be branching out, stay tuned…) and met some
great folks. To me, the highlight was
seeing Pascal and Hervé, because as important as the wines are, at the end of
the day it’s all about the people.

Millesime Bio done with, I headed south on the put-put train
to the Minervois, there to visit last year’s discovery, Domaine Terres Georges,
in Castelnau d’Aude. Their wines are
starting to get some serious traction in the US, so this was a visit I was
really looking forward to.

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Who, moi?

I am a refugee from the textile industry. After 15 years doing something I despised, I decided life was too short to be depressed all the time. I now import artisanal wines from Europe and have never been happier.
Carpe Diem!